St. Jude hoards billions while many of its families drain their savings
Wiped out savings
The costs associated with care at St. Jude caused at least one family to stop going to Memphis altogether.
Last winter, Kelly Edwards was excitedly searching through Tulsa real estate listings after years of diligently saving $10,000 for a down payment on a house. She craved a permanent home for herself and the two young brothers she had taken in five years earlier at the behest of a family friend. She hoped to adopt the boys, now 13 and 9, who call her mom.
In February, the older boy, DJ, was lethargic and uninterested in his schoolwork. After several doctor visits, he was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia at a Tulsa hospital. The cancer, referred to as ALL, is the most common type among children, with survival rates that exceed 90%. A day after his diagnosis, DJ and Edwards were driving six hours to Memphis for treatment at St. Jude, which is affiliated with the Oklahoma hospital.
The pair stayed for free at an independently operated Ronald McDonald House near St. Jude, and a weekly stipend from the hospital helped to pay for meals – aid that Edwards said was a blessing. DJ had health insurance through the Oklahoma Medicaid program.
But as with the Murphys, lost income soon put Edwards’ family into financial jeopardy. She works as a supervisor for a company that delivers packages for Amazon. After she used up two weeks of paid time off, she stopped getting paychecks. The bills, however, kept coming: rent, car payments, utilities. To that was added the $250 a week she paid a friend to stay with DJ’s younger brother and her two dogs in Tulsa.
Within four months, her house savings were wiped out. Edwards said she told her St. Jude social worker about her financial woes but got no additional help.
One of Edwards’ adult daughters started a GoFundMe campaign to help, bringing in just over $3,000. Edwards said she appreciated the aid but believes donations were kept low by the widespread perception that St. Jude families don’t have financial problems.
“Everyone hears that everything is taken care of by St. Jude,” she said. “That is not true, but everyone has that mentality.” She said someone she knew asked her “what is that money going for if St. Jude’s is paying for everything?”
DJ was scheduled to go back to St. Jude for three weeks of treatment in August, but Edwards decided she simply couldn’t afford it. “I don’t have the money to go back and forth,” she said. She worked with DJ’s local doctors and found that the hospital near her home in Tulsa could provide the same treatment he was scheduled to get in Tennessee.
The local treatment allowed her to continue working some shifts and to be at home with both of her boys. DJ is also happier when he is home, Edwards said.
Edwards and the boys are now living in a small house her brother owns just outside Tulsa. Late on a recent weekday afternoon, DJ slowly shuffled into the living room, exhausted from a day of chemotherapy treatment.
He is in the midst of a 20-week regimen where he receives the cancer-killing drugs every other day, just one phase of a nearly three-year treatment plan. He wore an orange knit hat, T-shirt, and shorts. He rubbed his eyes before asking a visitor, “How is your day going?” He smiled at the positive response. When he heard the family was eating steak for dinner, he eagerly jumped up to start helping in the kitchen. After they moved in, Edwards hung family portraits on the walls to make it feel homier. She doesn’t expect they will be moving again any time soon.
The dream of buying a home of their own is gone.
Former ProPublica reporter Marshall Allen contributed reporting. Kirsten Berg contributed research.
This story was originally published on ProPublica. ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive their biggest stories as soon as they’re published.
